Elsevier

Journal of Cleaner Production

Volume 17, Issue 14, September 2009, Pages 1264-1271
Journal of Cleaner Production

An assessment of the recycling potential of materials basedon environmental and economic factors; case study in South Korea

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.03.023Get rights and content

Abstract

As the generation of waste home appliances increases continuously with economic growth, the importance of recycling becomes more apparent. Many home appliances we use today are recyclable, and recyclable materials from the waste home appliances can be used to create new or refurbishing products. To do that, first of all, we have to know and consider the recyclable materials' recycling potential with environmental and economic information. In this study, an evaluation method to assess recycling potential considering both the environmental and economic factors was suggested for the materials recovered from waste home appliances. Life cycle assessment (LCA) method was applied to obtain the environmental score (SEnv) and an actual value and a static economic model was used to obtain the economic score (SEco). The recycling potential for recyclable materials was calculated by using the SEnv and SEco along with weighting factors derived from an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. With the calculated data and evaluation method for the recycling materials, this study could provide useful information for decision makers and product designers in the design for environment (DfE).

Introduction

Recycling and reusing are emerging as potential solutions for reduction of waste and depletion of natural resources caused by the ‘mass production and mass consumption’ of the present highly civilized social system. Thus, a lot of efficient management systems and technologies have been developed and applied to waste management fields. However, most attempts are related to the generation of waste and its prediction, characterization, collection, treatment and recycling technologies, cost analysis and institutional improvement [1], [2]. Similar to other environmental problems, management of solid waste is highly dependent on budget. If we try to put more effort into environmentally friendly management of solid waste, overall management cost will be increased. In some cases, it is difficult to decide which the most preferable alternative is; protect the environment or maximize economic gain.

Due to this reason, it is desirable to develop a reasonable quantitative decision method that considers both aspects. Up to now, a lot of methodologies and tools were developed for multi-criteria decision making [3], [4] and for integrating environmental and economic aspects; however, few studies were performed in the field of solid waste management.

The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation method considering environmental and economic aspects for the recycling materials from waste home appliances.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and the static & actual results economical analysis model can be used to calculate environmental loads and economic value of materials generated from the recycling process of waste home appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines, etc. LCA is a comprehensive environmental assessment tool standardized by International Standard Organization (ISO) that provides quantitative environmental impact on the object of assessment through its whole life cycle [5], [6]. LCA has been applied to evaluate environmental impacts for an efficient waste management in European countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands. In addition, in Japan and EU, quite a few studies were performed concerning environmental evaluation of waste recycling and comparative economic analysis of recycling, incineration and landfill [7], [8], [9]. However, there is no integrating research of environmental and economic aspects about recyclable materials from waste home appliances. It is important that in the developing stage of sustainable product, designers or decision makers have to know materials' recycle potential with environmental and economic information.

From this point of view, a method to evaluate the recycle potential integrating environmental impact as represented by the environmental score (SEnv) and management cost as represented by the economic score (SEco) in the recycling system of waste home appliances is suggested.

Section snippets

Generation and collection of waste home appliances

With South Korea's economic growth, the generation of waste home appliances is increasing continuously as shown in Table 1 [10], [11]. Fig. 1 shows a collection system of waste home appliance in South Korea. According to the report of Ministry of Environment in Korea [11], waste home appliances are collected by local governments, company's logistic center, secondhand goods centers, and secondhand dealers. Local governments are collecting about 40% and company's logistic centers are collecting

Method to estimate recycling potential of materials from waste home appliances

Until now, some research has been performed to estimate recycling potential considering either environmental data or economic data [12], [13]. In this paper, we combine environmental and economic data to evaluate the recycling potential of recycling materials. The basic equation can be expressed as follows;SRecycling Potential=αSEnv+βSEcoWhere, α and β are weighting values for environmental and economic scores, respectively, SEnv indicates environmental score and SEco indicates economic score.

Goals and scope for LCA on recycling process

For this study, data from N recycling company, which is located in the City of Seoul, South Korea and treating about 40% of waste home appliances collected in South Korea, were investigated. Fig. 2 shows the recycling process of waste home appliances and the research boundary. Waste television, washing machine, refrigerator, and air conditioner were selected and an LCA study was performed on the materials, steel, copper, aluminum, plastic, circuit board and glass, recovered from the selected

Economic evaluation in recycling process of waste home appliances

A static economic evaluation method was applied in this study. The static economic approach includes the following characteristics:

  • Cost analysis is performed on treatment and recycling technology for recycled materials in the current recycling system.

  • Current market value is used to determine cost and benefit in the present market.

  • Consider the recycling plants' actual results other than considering future technique change or market change.

The economics in the waste home appliance recycling

Calculation of recycling potential for each material

Based on the environmental and economic value of each material, the recycling potential of each material was calculated. The eight categories were selected to calculate the environmental score of recycling materials include abiotic resource depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity and human toxicity. The five categories selected to calculate the economic score include collection fee received from the generator,

Conclusion

The evaluation of both the environmental score and the economic score of materials recovered from waste home appliances was attempted to calculate the recycling potential in this study. The results can be summarized as follows:

  • -

    The SEnv of recycled glass and circuit board showed the highest value, followed by steel, copper and aluminum, and plastic.

  • -

    The SEco of the recycled copper showed the highest value, followed by aluminum, steel, plastic, and followed by aluminum, steel, plastic, and glass

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